Tuesday, 29 December 2009

I went to watch Sherlock Holmes the day after Boxing Day as an antidote to too much family time. I had been idly looking forward to the film, having a huge fondness for Robert Downey Jr (okay, let's be honest, a massive girl crush - I want to have his babies). I confess to a) not having read any Sherlock Holmes (despite the fact I live near Portsmouth and Doyle lived around here in his time) and b) not knowing much about the film before I went into the cinema, apart from those filling the starring roles.

I do believe that might have been a blessing, in retrospect. I have since been on the blogosphere and various websites to find out other peeps opinions on the film and there was a most definitely mixed reception. Many people were screaming about the fact that it wasn't a faithful adaptation and there was too much action and blah blah blah.

Personally I loved it! It was fun, and RDJ seemed excellent in the role - a quirky, hyper-intelligent, eccentric English gentleman. He was backed up ably by Jude Law (an actor I have never been fond of, but I enjoyed his spiky performance here). I also enjoyed the villain, Blackwood, who had gravitas and brought great menace to the screen.

I felt that it was definitely a buddy movie, and that the role of Irene Adler was under-used. McAdams tried her best with limited material, but did seem very much like a modern girl wrapped up in a Victorian dress rather than making the effort to fit into the surroundings of the film. The chemistry between RDJ and RM was excellent, though!

For me there was a lovely balance between action and dialogue, but most of my favourite scenes did favour the latter.

I loved the dreamy colour pallette used for the film, and the beautiful cityscape shots were just stunning - although I do feel the London geography was just a tad off!

I thoroughly enjoyed this good-natured romp and will definitely go to see any sequels, but I don't know how closely it did correspond with the source material. The film must have done something right, though, because I have picked up some work by Arthur Conan Doyle to find out more about Sherlock Holmes!